The invention relates generally to aircraft simulators and more specifically concerns a seat cushion for providing realistic acceleration cues to aircraft simulator pilots.
In the control of an aircraft, the kinesthetic cues or (seat-of-the-pants) feel provide important information to the pilot concerning the aircraft's dynamic state. Pilots sense such kinesthetic cues as buffet, control forces, and linear and angular accelerations. One of the most important of the acceleration cues is the normal acceleration. Under positive normal acceleration, the pilot is subjected to an increase in weight for each part of his body. This results in such things as the blood-pooling in lower portions of the body and a reduced blood flow to the head which eventually results in tunnel vision and blackout. The increased body weight also causes increased pressure on the "seat-of-the-pants" as the seat cushion padding becomes fully compressed and no longer conforms to the pilot's buttocks. This causes a greater portion of the pilot's weight to be borne by the area around the tuberosities (the two bones which protrude furthest into the buttocks) and thus a change in the pressure distribution on the buttocks.
Numerous seat cushion designs for simulated acceleration cues have been proposed in the past. However, these previous seat cushion designs have not worked well because of their inability to make the cues feel realistic to the pilot and because of their inability to control the air pressure with sufficient response time and smoothness to adequately drive the seat cushions.
It is therefore the primary purpose of this invention to provide a seat cushion design that will provide realistic simulated acceleration cues.
Another object of the invention is to provide air pressure controllers for seat cushion designs with sufficient response time and smoothness to adequately drive the designs.
A furher object of this invention is to provide a new method for imparting acceleration cues to simulator pilots.
Other objects and advantages will become apparent hereinafter in the specification and drawings.